80th Birthday Dinner
In July I was contacted by Helen who wished to organise 2 separate events at her home in August and September. We recently showed you images from the Greek BBQ, and now I am delighted to show you the 80th Birthday dinner we organised.
This event was for her Father in Laws 80th whereby she wanted a beautiful early dinner in their garden with family in attendance. Helens garden is beautiful with many areas of interest one of which was the pond , I decided this would be a wonderful backdrop to the dinner.
Chelmer Marquees have a stunning circular traditional marquee which I thought would be perfect, with window walls all around the view would be uninterrupted regardless of weather. Space was a little tight so the catering annexe was a regular frame marquee with walkway adjoining it to the traditional marquee. Special thank you to Paul from Chelmer for ensuring we used all available space! 
When guests arrived they followed the bunting from the front of the house to the gardens, upon arrival they were greeted with Bellini and Champagne and soft harp music. As I’ve mentioned before on my blog, I sadly can’t plan the weather, whilst setting up the party it was torrential rain, thankfully we had added an additional marquee to use for the arrival drinks before dinner “just in case”. Poor Lucy and I did get a tad wet putting the finishing touches together.
My aim was to keep the design of the marquee luxurious but intimate, it needed to feel relaxed and reminiscent of a family dinner. We used linen from 88 Events including the lace overlay and flowers from Jades Flowers, both of which were selected to ensure the design wasn’t too feminine. There was no seating plan as guests could sit wherever they preferred, thus the only stationery on the day were ones from Hip Hip Hooray which again suited the design. Scented candles were positioned on the tables to further enhance the senses when guests came in for dinner. We hired Lesley-Anne from PurplePearTree to capture the day for our clients.
Just prior to guests arriving I departed leaving the lovely Lucie to manage the day for me. When guests sat down for dinner it was to a delicious 3 course meal provided by Bouquet Garni of Rump Lamb. As always the service was exceptional – especially when serving drinks in the torrential rain walking from the catering annexe. to the drinks marquee! Just after dinner there was some singing from Kevin Fitzsimmons which finished off the evening superbly.
Marquees: Chelmer Marquees // Catering: Bouquet Garni // Linen: 88 Events // Harpist: Maria Beattie // Singer: Kevin Fitzsimmons // Bunting: Tickety Boo // Flowers: Jades Flowers // Stationery: Hip Hip Hooray // Photography: Purple Pear Tree
It was a joy working with Helen organising these 2 events and I hope to work with her again in the future. Remember I can help with smaller functions, both these events had 50 guests in attendance and ran from 3pm-8pm. I know guests had a fabulous time and Helen appreciated having someone who could organise the events on her behalf, especially as she was out of the country for most of the time. Huge thanks to Lucie for being my right hand lady.